


Exile

by CatsBalletHarveySpecter



Category: Jopper - Fandom, Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M, Friends to Lovers, Jopper, Song fic, Teen Jopper, Teen Romance, jopper then and now, stranger things, that taylor swift ficlet no one asked for
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-26
Updated: 2020-07-26
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:13:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25522651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CatsBalletHarveySpecter/pseuds/CatsBalletHarveySpecter
Summary: A Jopper ficlet based on the Taylor Swift song Exile
Relationships: Jonathan Byers & Joyce Byers & Will Byers & Eleven | Jane Hopper, Joyce Byers & Jim "Chief" Hopper, Joyce Byers/Jim "Chief" Hopper
Comments: 3
Kudos: 20





	Exile

**Exile**

_I can see you standin', honey  
With his arms around your body  
Laughin' but the joke's not funny at all  
And it took you five whole minutes  
To pack us up and leave me with it  
Holdin' all this love out here in the hall_

* * *

Jim Hopper and Joyce Byers had been in and out of each other’s lives for years. They met as freshmen, their lockers being randomly assigned side-by-side. They didn’t talk much in their freshman year. They shared an occasional smile or a brief hello, but they ran in different circles and didn’t have much in common. Things changed in their sophomore year as they kept running into one another when they snuck out between fifth and sixth periods for a cigarette.

A few months after realizing they were both skipping class and hiding beneath the bleachers, they began sharing stories and cigarettes. By the end of their sophomore year, Jim considered them friends. He wasn’t sure if Joyce did, but he found the time he spent talking to her to be the highlight of his day.

They still ran in different circles. He was a jock; the star of the wrestling team, while Joyce was in the photography club and mostly kept to herself. In the halls, they had developed a playful but friendly relationship. Jim would tease Joyce about the lack of colour in her wardrobe and in return Joyce would tease him about the latest cheerleader he was rumoured to be hooking up with. All in good fun, of course.

The summer of their sophomore year things began to shift. They began to spend more time together when Joyce’s friend, Karen began dating Jim’s friend, Benny. Their friend’s budding romance shifted the secretive nature of Joyce and Jim’s friendship. Rather than secretly spending time together beneath the bleachers, they were spending time together at the local diner, sharing platters of french fries. As the summer months progressed, they grew closer until Jim began to pick Joyce up daily. They spent time with Benny and Karen but they also began spending the early evenings by the lake, smoking and laughing as they exchanged stories. By the time September rolled around, they were inseparable.

In school, they walked the halls side-by-side, ignoring the sideways glances people tossed in their direction. Their friendship was unconventional, but they didn’t care. Nothing romantic ever happened between them, but their friendship bordered on flirty.

Benny often teased Jim about having feelings for Joyce, but he constantly denied them. They shared cigarettes after class. Jim drove Joyce to and from school every day. While the weather remained nice they stopped at the lake after school and sat on the hood of Jim’s car, talking about nothing and everything.

Joyce began calling Jim “Hop” three months into the school year. What began as a way to tease him soon stuck. He didn’t let anyone else call him by the nickname, and even though he complained each time she used the nickname, he secretly loved it. It was something like a secret shared between them.

Jim finally made a move on a random Tuesday night when he drove Joyce home from their spot at the lake. He’s not sure what possessed him to do it, but something caused him to lean over and tuck a strand of hair behind Joyce’s ear. When she blushed, he drew in a deep breath and kissed her. When she didn’t pull back, he knew he’d impulsively made the right choice.

After their impromptu makeout session in Jim’s car, they successfully avoided each other for three days before Joyce cornered Jim and demanded to know what they were.

He told her he wanted to date her.

They dated for the rest of the school year but much like their friendship, their relationship was hot and heavy. They broke up three times before school let out, all results of fights that blew way out of proportion. When they got back together they were once again inseparable until their next big fight.

He told Joyce he loved her at their spot by the lake. It was the first time he’d ever said that to anyone. He meant it.

He made love to her for the first time after sneaking into her bedroom late one night when he just couldn’t seem to say goodnight after they grabbed dinner. They were just kids but he never knew it could be like this.

Their relationship was the talk of the town for a while. Everyone had always assumed there was something going on between the pair, and now that there actually was, the rumours spread like wildfire. He didn’t mind. He was with Joyce, and to Jim, that was all that mattered.

They broke up two weeks before prom. Joyce ended up going with Lonnie Byers, a creep from the photography club that Hopper never liked. He watched from across the gym as Lonnie wrapped his arms around Joyce, his Joyce, before storming out into the parking lot to finish his pack of cigarettes.

He received his notice for deployment three days later.

He didn’t get a chance to say goodbye. Instead, he left Hawkins with the memory of Joyce in Lonnie Byer's arms.

* * *

_I think I've seen this film before  
And I didn't like the ending  
You're not my homeland anymore  
So what am I defendin' now?  
You were my town  
Now I'm in exile seein' you out_

* * *

Staring at the empty space that stretches out in front of him, he draws in a deep breath.

How long has he been here? Days? Weeks? He hadn’t the slightest clue.  
All he knew was that he lost them. _His girls._

Having had a lot of time to reflect, he knows this was going to be hard on El, but he knew if anyone was strong enough to handle this, it was her.

He did this to save her. To save them all.

As time wears, on in the void he finds himself stuck on what could have been. He and Joyce we’re finally going to get another shot and now… now he was here and she was alone.

He can’t help himself from feeling like he’s left her _again._

A strange feeling of déjà vu lingers in his mind as he forces his eyes shut. He left her in Hawkins once again. He’s been here once before. He left Joyce in behind in Hawkins once. Last time he’d done so, she was married with a son when he returned. She wasn’t the same girl he once loved.

Everything had changed.

He was reliving the nightmare all over again. After spending years as strangers, he and Joyce were finally in a good place again. They got to know each other as adults and had built a friendship that helped pull him through even the toughest of days.

Beginning on that fateful day a few years prior, when Will went missing and Joyce wandered into his office, she’d begun to change his life once again. And he let her.

He always assumed that his return to Hawkins was temporary. Then Joyce Byers walked back into his life and he couldn’t imagine being anywhere else.

Sitting in the darkness, alone with his thoughts, he lets the dread consume him.

He’d been here before. He’d left Joyce. He knew that when and if he returned, nothing would be the same.

He knew how this story ended.

* * *

_I can see you starin', honey  
Like he's just your understudy  
Like you'd get your knuckles bloody for me  
Second, third, and hundredth chances  
Balancin' on breaking branches  
Those eyes add insult to injury_

* * *

She saw how he looked at her. She didn’t at first, but eventually, she began to notice the way his gaze lingered.

It all started when she began seeing Bob and Hopper stopped coming around the house. Initially, she wrote it off. He’d only been coming around to check on them because she was alone. Now that she wasn’t, he probably assumed she didn’t need protection anymore. It couldn’t have been further from the truth. Her nightmares persisted and she could never explain them fully to Bob. The only time she ever slept through the night was when Hopper was around.

She watched in horror as those things took Bob, but looking back on that night she was grateful that it wasn’t Hopper. Did that make her a horrible person? Bob sacrificed himself to save them and now Hopper had done the same.

She really thought the universe was giving her and Hopper a second chance but maybe second chances were for suckers.

She messed up blowing Hopper off for dinner. She should have said yes, she knows. But she was afraid. Afraid of losing him, afraid of the way he made her feel and most of all, afraid that history would repeat itself.

That night down in the Russian tunnels, just before she agreed to dinner, she caught him staring at her in a way that made her heart met. He was looking at her like she held the entire universe together, and it made her feel worse for wasting so much time. For not waiting for him the first time he left. For every mistake, she’d made past and present.

When she almost lost him that night in the lab, she knew that losing him was not something her heart could handle. She knew then that she loved him far greater than she’d ever dared admit to herself.

So, she agreed to dinner. Agreed to a date. Agreed to let herself fall for the first man she’d ever fallen for.

And then he was gone.

* * *

_I think I've seen this film before_   
_And I didn't like the ending_   
_I'm not your problem anymore_   
_So who am I offending now?_

* * *

He was gone. She was alone. But at least this time she had her kids. _Their kids._

They had become a family in the most unconventional way, but they were family.

Hopper was gone. She was alone. It was time to leave Hawkins. She couldn’t stay. She’d seen that story before and she was holding out hope for a different ending.


End file.
